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Written Statement of Hannah C. Smith Senior Counsel, Becket

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Written Statement of Hannah C. Smith Senior Counsel, Becket Written Statement of Hannah C. Smith Senior Counsel, Becket Subcommittee on the Constitution and Civil Justice of the Committee on the Judiciary U.S. House of Representatives Hearing on “The State of Religious Liberty in America” February 16, 2017 * * * * * Chairman King, Ranking Member Cohen, and Distinguished Members of the Subcommittee: Good afternoon and thank you for the invitation and opportunity to offer testimony at today’s hearing on “The State of Religious Liberty in America.” My name is Hannah Smith, and I am Senior Counsel at Becket, a non- profit, public-interest law firm dedicated to protecting religious liberty for people of all faiths. At Becket, we have defended Buddhists, Christians, Jews, Hindus, Muslims, Native Americans, Sikhs, and Zoroastrians. We have litigated several cases before the United States Supreme Court, all of which have resulted in favorable decisions, including the Little Sisters of the Poor in Zubik v. Burwell,1 Holt v. Hobbs,2 Burwell v. Hobby Lobby,3 and Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School v. EEOC.4 Today, I’d like to illuminate the state of religious liberty in America through the prism of recent cases to focus on two principles. The first principle is that government must provide equivalent legal protections to religious groups when it provides those same protections to secular groups. The second principle is that 1 Zubik v. Burwell, 136 S. Ct. 1557 (2016) (religious ministries’ RFRA challenge to the Affordable Care Act’s HHS mandate). 2 Holt v. Hobbs, 135 S. Ct. 853 (2015) (a Muslim prisoner’s RLUIPA challenge to a ban on religious beards). 3 Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc., 134 S. Ct. 2751 (2014) (a closely-held Christian family business’s RFRA challenge to the Affordable Care Act’s HHS mandate). 4 Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church & Sch. v. EEOC, 132 S. Ct. 694 (2012) (a religious school’s defense of the ministerial exception under the First Amendment). religious organizations that perform so much of our country’s charitable works should not be discriminated against merely because of their religious status. I. Religious Freedom Means Ensuring that Religious Groups Receive Protections on Equal Footing with Secular Groups. A recent Becket victory involving Sikhs in the Army demonstrates how religious liberty cases are generally not about providing exceptional treatment to religious groups, but are instead about ensuring that protections given for secular purposes are not withheld from religious groups simply because they are religious. Sikhism is the world’s fifth-largest religion. Two of the core tenets of the Sikh faith include maintaining uncut hair and wearing a turban, which signify the inherent dignity and equality of every individual. These religious tenets have not prevented Sikhs from serving admirably in militaries around the world, including in Australia, Canada, India, and the United Kingdom.5 Service in the armed forces has always been—and continues to be—a central part of the Sikh identity. The Sikh martial tradition dates back to the late 17th century,6 and Sikhs have earned a reputation as being among the world’s best warriors.7 Until fairly recently, the same was true in the United States, where Sikh soldiers served valiantly since the World War I era.8 From the beginning, since 1775, the U.S. military has broadly protected the religious liberty of its troops. But, in 1981, the military broke from that tradition when it imposed a ban on beards.9 This ban included multiple exceptions for secular reasons, allowing the military to accommodate nearly 100,000 soldiers with beards for medical or tactical reasons, including Special Forces Operators.10 But other than a few rare cases, the rule did 5 Compl. at 2, Singh v. Carter, No. 1:16-cv-00399 (D.D.C. Feb. 29, 2016), http://www.becketfund.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Complaint-final.pdf. 6 Compl. at 9-10, Singh v. Carter, No. 1:16-cv-00399, http://www.becketfund.org/wp- content/uploads/2016/02/Complaint-final.pdf. 7 Mem. in Supp. of Appl. for TRO and Appl. for Prelim. Inj. at 7, Singh v. Carter, No. 1:16-cv-00399 (D.D.C. Feb. 29, 2016) (hereinafter “TRO Memo”), http://www.becketfund.org/wp- content/uploads/2016/02/Combined-Memo-in-Support-of-TRO-and-PI.pdf. 8 Compl. at 2, Singh v. Carter, No. 1:16-cv-00399, http://www.becketfund.org/wp- content/uploads/2016/02/Complaint-final.pdf. 9 TRO Memo at 20, Singh v. Carter, No. 1:16-cv-00399, http://www.becketfund.org/wp- content/uploads/2016/02/Combined-Memo-in-Support-of-TRO-and-PI.pdf. 10 Compl. at 24, Singh v. Carter, No. 1:16-cv-00399; see also Singh v. McHugh, 109 F. Supp. 3d 72, 96 (D.D.C. 2015), http://www.becketfund.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Complaint-final.pdf. 2 not allow beards for religious reasons.11 This ban resulted in the near total exclusion of Sikhs from the U.S. military.12 Against this backdrop, in 2016, Becket teamed up with the Sikh Coalition and the law firm McDermott Will & Emery to petition the Army to grant a religious accommodation to West Point graduate, Army Ranger, and Bronze Star Medal recipient Captain Simratpal “Simmer” Singh.13 After receiving this request, the Army ordered Captain Singh to undergo a series of tests that other soldiers permitted to wear beards for medical reasons have not been required to complete.14 Becket brought a lawsuit in federal district court for the District of Columbia under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, also known as RFRA, to prevent the discriminatory testing and to obtain an accommodation for Captain Singh.15 RFRA is a statute that was passed in the wake of the Supreme Court’s 1990 decision in Employment Division v. Smith, which cut back traditional constitutional protections for religious liberty.16 In the wake of the Smith decision, a bipartisan coalition of elected officials, scholars, and advocacy groups united to restore protections for religious freedom. They understood that such heightened protection was necessary to protect this fundamental American liberty. When RFRA was passed in 1993, the bill “was supported by one of the broadest coalitions in recent political history,” with sixty-six religious and civil liberties groups, “including Christians, Jews, Muslims, Sikhs, Humanists, and secular civil liberties organizations.”17 RFRA was introduced in the House by then-Representative 11 Compl. at 25, Singh v. Carter, No. 1:16-cv-00399, http://www.becketfund.org/wp- content/uploads/2016/02/Complaint-final.pdf. 12 Id. 13 Singh v. Carter, 168 F. Supp. 3d 216 (D.D.C. 2016). 14 Id. at 233. 15 Singh v. Carter, 168 F. Supp. 3d 216 (D.D.C. 2016). 16 Emp’t Div., Dep’t of Human Res. of Or. v. Smith, 494 U.S. 872 (1990). 17 Douglas Laycock & Oliver S. Thomas, Interpreting the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, 73 Tex. L. Rev. 209, 210, 244 (1994), http://www.law.virginia.edu/pdf/faculty/hein/laycock/73tex_l_ rev209_1994.pdf; see also id. at 210 n.9 (“The Coalition for the Free Exercise of Religion included: Agudath Israel of America; American Association of Christian Schools; American Civil Liberties Union; American Conference on Religious Movements; American Humanist Association; American Jewish Committee; American Jewish Congress; American Muslim Council; Americans for Democratic Action; Americans for Religious Liberty; Americans United for Separation of Church and State; Anti-Defamation League; Association of Christian Schools International; Association on American Indian Affairs; Baptist Joint Committee on Public Affairs; B’nai B’rith; Central Conference of American Rabbis; Christian Church (Disciples of Christ); Christian College Coalition; Christian Legal Society; Christian Life Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention; Christian Science Committee on Publication; Church of the Brethren; Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints; Church of Scientology International; Coalitions for America; Concerned Women for America; Council of Jewish Federations; Council on Religious Freedom; Episcopal Church; Evangelical Lutheran 3 Charles Schumer, and it attracted no less than 170 co-sponsors from both political parties. The bill was unanimously approved in committee, and, after several years of congressional hearings, the full House subsequently passed the bill by a unanimous vote.18 The Senate’s companion bill was jointly presented by Senators Orrin Hatch and Edward Kennedy. It garnered a bipartisan group of 58 co-sponsors and passed the full Senate by a vote of 97-3.19 In his signing remarks, President Clinton noted “what a broad coalition of Americans came together to make this bill a reality” and that “many of the people in the coalition worked together across ideological and religious lines.”20 In the Singh case, the court relied on RFRA to rule in Captain Singh’s favor and ordered the Department of Defense to cease all discriminatory testing against Captain Singh and gave him temporary protection.21 After this RFRA victory in court, the Army granted a temporary accommodation that allowed Captain Singh to serve with his religious beard, unshorn hair, and turban in place for up to one year.22 At the beginning of 2017, following Becket’s successful litigation, the Army issued new regulations providing that—except in rare circumstances—sincere followers of the Sikh faith will no longer be forced to abandon their religious Church in America; Federation of Reconstructionist Congregations and Havurot; First Liberty Institute; Friends Committee on National Legislation; General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists; Guru Gobind Singh Foundation; Hadassah, The Women’s Zionist
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